


A Hollywood Story

by EmmaTheRevelator (MaybeItWasMemphis), MaybeItWasMemphis



Category: Original Work
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Hollywood, Kid Fic, Romance, fictional celebrity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:07:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23064454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaybeItWasMemphis/pseuds/EmmaTheRevelator, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaybeItWasMemphis/pseuds/MaybeItWasMemphis
Summary: Sunny is a young, single mother with a lot of baggage. Oz Finley is an A-list actor researching a role and falling hard for a call center manager. With the damage done in her past, can Sunny afford to trust Oz and his affections? Read and see for yourself.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

_"Love is a verb. Without action, it is merely a word."_

**~ Unknown**

Sunny Ingram slowly made her way up the cold metal staircase that led up to the employee entrance of the _Intratell Communications Center_ in Los Angeles, California. She was resigned to spending another mind-numbing day at work.

At the tender young age of twenty-four, this is where she had ended up trapped, working at a third-party call center as a ‘team leader’ (call team manager) for the company’s _Express Shipping America_ account. Sunny basically spent all day trying to excite a group of sixteen people so that they sounded half-way cheerful when they called existing _Express Shipping America_ account holders to try and sell them extra services that they did not need and, almost always, didn’t want. Smile and dial. That was the company’s motto. It was a scientific fact you could hear a person’s smile in their voice over the phone. Call agents were trained to always have a smile on their faces when calling and speaking to customers. It made the agents sound cheerful, and the more cheerful an agent sounded, the more business they were likely to gain. When Sunny wasn’t overseeing her agents, she was fielding manager-transfer calls and explaining to the upper-brass why her agents hadn’t made their one hundred calls a day quota. During one meeting with the head of quality control, Sunny had actually been forced to explain that customers usually didn’t answer their phones during inclement weather. Her team couldn’t be blamed for a category 5 hurricane striking the east coast. They also couldn’t be blamed for blizzards, wildfires, or that one time the autodialer system went nuts and started calling _Express Shipping Europe_ customers as opposed to _America_. Unfortunately, this mistake had been made worse by the fact that customers they were calling in the United Kingdom were asleep in bed because the agents were calling at three in the morning their time. Sunny had dealt with one hundred sixty-two angry manager-transfer calls that day – a personal best.

Why did Sunny torture herself by staying in a job that she hated, you ask? It was simple. The job paid a decent living wage, and it was the best job that she had been offered after her husband, Brian had been killed in a car accident three years earlier. She had been widowed when she was barely twenty-one. She had also been pregnant with her daughter and had a toddler son at home. She stayed at her job because she had her son, Morgan, now five, and her daughter, Erica, now three, to think about.

Sunny pulled the extendable cord that clipped to her skirt and scanned her employee badge to gain entrance to the building. Once inside the sizeable three-walled cubicle that passed as her office she found the usual items waiting for her on her desk: slips of paper with work-related notes from her agents, a can of her favorite carbonated energy drink that had been left for her by her best friend, Carlie, a team leader for the complaints and resolutions team. She also found a note from the floor-manager (and her direct supervisor), Trish, letting her know about a meeting that she was needed and expected for in a little under ten minutes in her office.

Sunny ran a hand through her long brunette hair and didn’t even bother to turn on her computer or sign in to the autodialer phone system. She simply grabbed her energy drink and the file on her desk containing the HR complaint against one of her agents that she needed to discuss with her boss. She figured she would go ahead and kill two birds with one stone. Walking across the large cubicle littered call floor, Sunny knocked on the glass door that led into Trish’s office.

“Come in, Sunny!”

When Sunny opened the door and noticed who was sitting in one of the chairs in front of Trish’s desk, her jaw damn near hit the floor. 


	2. Chapter 2

Sitting in front of her boss’ desk was a nicely built man with ocean blue eyes and long, blond hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. What in the hell was People’s Sexiest Man Alive doing in her boss’ office?

“Oh, Sunny, thanks for coming.” Trish stood from her desk and smiled like there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary going on. “I have an odd request to make of you. Please, come in and shut the door behind you.”

Sunny did as she was asked. She closed the door and took a seat in the chair next to the unexpected (severe understatement) visitor.

Trish got right down to business. “The center will be playing host to a special guest.” The short, thick, bottle-blonde woman gestured to the man sitting beside Sunny. “I’d like to introduce you to Oz Finley. You may recognize him.”

Recognize him? He played the lead villain in her son, Morgan’s favorite fantasy film series. Actually, Oz Finley seemed to play the villain in everything that Sunny had ever seen him in now that she thought about it. She nodded at her boss. “Yes, ma’am, I do.” Sunny turned towards the man beside her. “It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Finley.” She held out her hand to him.

“You as well, love.” He took her hand and laid a gentle kiss on her knuckles. “You can call me Oz.” He for sure knew how to turn on the charm. Then again, he was an actor. Being charming was part of the job description.

Sunny smiled and simply nodded at him in acknowledgment of his words.

“As I was saying,” Trish continued, “Oz here has an upcoming movie where he plays a manager in a call center. He wants to spend some time here, observing how we work, as research for his role. I was hoping that you wouldn’t mind letting him shadow your team for the next few weeks.”

Sunny just loved how Trish made it sound like she had any real choice in the matter. “No problem,” she nodded with a tight smile on her face. As if she didn’t have enough on her plate, now she also had to spend the next two weeks babysitting one of Hollywood’s pampered princes while he slummed it with the working peasants.

“Thank you, Sunny.” Oz smiled at her. “May I call you Sunny?”

“That is what my momma named me,” Sunny chuckled. Oz was polite, that much she was relieved to learn.

“That’s all I needed to discuss with you, but judging from that file in your hand, you have something on your mind.” Trish gestured to Sunny’s hand.

“Yeah, I do.” Sunny sat up straighter and got right down to business. She pulled a sheet of paper from the file and laid it on the desk. “I want permission to have Jay walked out by security. He sent out that e-mail in a blast to my entire team with suggestions for a team name that no one asked for.” That’s because the teams were color-coded, not named. Her team was the purple team. “He suggested some real gems, such as ‘The Express Dope Dealers,’ ‘Purple Haze,’ and the ‘Moist Packagers’ … and those are the tame ones.”

Sunny almost laughed at how wide Trish’s eyes became when she read the impressively long list of inappropriate team names. A curious Oz got to his feet so he could read the piece of paper on the desk. “Maybe he’s just having a bit of fun at work?” Oz laughed, and Sunny wanted to smack him.

“Maybe he’s always this disrespectful and gross, and I’ve had enough of it,” Sunny shot a glare in the actor’s direction.

“What else has he done?” Trish was now taking notes on a blue legal pad.

“He called me a MILF last week, and yesterday, on top of sending that e-mail, he told Maria how big his penis is and even offered to show it to her.”

Trish dropped her pen, and the smile quickly left Oz’s face. “My bad. I didn’t realize it was a #METOO situation.” He held up his hands in mock surrender.

“Send him in here,” Trish ordered, “right now.”

With a resigned sigh, Sunny pasted a faked smile on her face, nodded at Trish, and turned to look at the Hollywood pretty boy. “Are you ready to see how we operate?”

Oz nodded and followed her out of the office. When the two of them were out of Trish’s earshot, Oz gently grabbed her arm to get Sunny to stop walking. “Listen, Sunny, I’m sorry if I offended you. I didn’t realize that this Jay bloke was such a prick.” Oz stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. He kind of reminded Sunny of a little boy who had just been scolded for being naughty.

This time, the smile that came to Sunny’s face was genuine. “You’re forgiven. Don’t worry about it,” she waved her hand. “I gave Jay the benefit of the doubt at first myself. Let me go, and then I’ll show you around the call floor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used to work in a call center, once upon a time, in what seems like another life. The character of ‘Jay’ was based on a real employee that worked beneath me named Michael. Every team name that he comes up with and every nasty thing that Sunny says ‘Jay’ has done, actually happened with Michael. His behavior was not okay, and, at times, it was downright illegal. If you have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, please, visit the Time’s Up website. What is Time’s Up? “Time's Up is a movement against sexual harassment and was founded on January 1, 2018, by Hollywood celebrities in response to the Weinstein effect and #MeToo. As of December 2018, it has raised more than $22 million for its legal defense fund, and gathered nearly 800 volunteer lawyers.” Website: www.timesupnow.org


	3. Chapter 3

Three hours later, Sunny was sitting at her desk, taking a break after setting Oz up with a headset and letting him sit with one her agents on the floor so that he could listen in on a few calls when her best friend, Carlie, made her way over to her cubicle office to chat.

“Is Oz Finley seriously spending the next two weeks her in the center?” Carlie was giddy as she perched on the edge of her desk. Her thick blonde hair was perfectly and stylishly done, and her makeup job probably counted as a precious work of art. If she weren’t such a sweetheart, Sunny would have had no choice but to her hate on principle.

“Yes, Carlie,” Sunny sighed. She was completely exhausted, and her nerves were shot. After Trish had given Jay his metaphorical pink slip, he had to be escorted off the property by security. Her was sure to yell every obscenity in his limited vocabulary at Sunny as he was leaving. After that, the call system had glitched out for over an hour. The auto dialer was repeatedly calling the same numbers and Sunny had been forced to take her entire call team offline while IT worked on the problem. Because call agents made weekly bonuses based on the number of calls they made each day, said agents were less than thrilled with the down time. While all of this was going down, she was also answering questions for Oz every ten minutes. Sunny had to hand it to him, the actor took his research for roles very seriously.

“Girl, you have one of the biggest Hollywood heartthrobs on earth spending eight hours a day, five days a week, as your personal shadow. What is your serious malfunction?” Carlie lightly kicked her boot-clad foot.

Sunny shook her head. “I’m just tired. Morgan’s been having nightmares about Brian again and Erica caught a bug at preschool, so she was throwing up all night. She still had a fever this morning, so I had to leave her home with Mrs. Vines from next door. Luckily, she refuses to let me pay her so I’m not spending money I can’t afford for a babysitter.” She ran a tired hand over her face.

Carlie gave her a sympathetic smile. “You don’t have to go this all on your own, you know,” she told her gently.

“Who am I supposed to turn to? I have zero family. Brian’s dead and when he was around, he wasn’t much help anyway. Lord knows I’m not letting his family anywhere near my kids after how badly they fucked him up.” Sunny sounded more than just a little bitter.

“What am I, chopped liver? You have me,” Carlie’s tone left no room for argument. “You can call me, day or night. You should know that by now.”

“Thanks, Carlie.” Sunny gave her a tired but sincere smile.

“Alrighty, I have to run. I have a meeting with Trish, but I don’t want to meet him later.” She pointed one of her perfectly manicured nails in Oz’s direction. Oz who was in the process of unhooking his headset and heading in their direction.

Sunny chuckled to herself as Carlie headed off and Oz came over and took the spot that she had just vacated on her desk.

“I feel for you, love, I really do.” Oz chuckled and ran his hand through his hair.

Sunny checked the time on her computer. “The team’s about to break for lunch if you want to go and grab something.”

“Sure, where do you want to go?” He countered.

Sunny felt the heat rush to her cheeks. “I didn’t mean together.”

Oz gave a hearty laugh. “Yeah, but I did.”

Sunny shook her head. “I can’t.”

“Are you married? Have a boyfriend?” He continued to press.

“No, but I have two kids.” Sunny pointed to the framed picture on her desk. The photograph was of two giggling children with jet-black hair and sapphire blue eyes, just like their mother.

“Cute,” Oz smiled and nodded. “So, having kids prevents you from eating?”

“No, you’re turning that around on me,” Sunny was beginning to get flustered.

“Then just agree so we can go.” Oz smirked. “I’m starving.”

“Fine.” Sunny grabbed her purse from under her desk. “But I’m driving and you’re paying.”

Laughing softly to himself, Oz followed her out of the building.


	4. Chapter 4

Sunny and Oz settled on a small hole-in-the-wall diner that Sunny liked to frequent. It sat far enough away from the downtown business district to be busy but not overcrowded during the lunch rush.

Speaking of Sunny, she was nervous as hell. It had been seven long, turbulent years since she had been out on a date…if that’s what this lunch could be considered. She was still a touch confused. The only person she had ever dated was her late husband – and that courtship had culminated in an accidental pregnancy and a shotgun wedding when she was nineteen. She didn’t know what to say, so it was lucky that Oz was the one to initiate the conversation.

“So, you have two kids?” Oz asked after they had placed their lunch order.

Sunny nodded and smiled like the proud momma bear that she was. “Yeah, Morgan and Erica. Morgan is five, and Erica just turned three.”

“I love kids,” Oz surprised her when he smiled at her and shared. “I’m the youngest out of six boys, and I’m the only one without kids. All of my brothers were married with kids by the time they were my age, but those damn _Royal Magician_ movies kind of took up all of my teen years and twenties.”

“You mean to tell me that you didn’t enjoy playing the evil teenage Duke of York who somehow is also an evil warlock who monologues worse than a _James Bond_ villain?” Sunny had been attempting to tease him, and she realized too late that her words sounded incredibly insulting. “I am so sorry. That came out way ruder than I meant for it to. I don’t think those movies are bad. Morgan loves them.”

Oz laughed as the waitress delivered their drinks. He took a sip of his coke before he responded. “You don’t need to be sorry, love. I hated those films. The last one was released last year, and I’m thrilled. Once this next film wraps, I’m hoping to take a year or two off. I’ve been filming non-stop since I was thirteen.”

Sunny had no idea what time off felt like, and she probably never would with two kids to support and put through college. She simply smiled and nodded politely. Then she changed the subject. “What is this movie you’re shadowing me about anyway? Call center manager doesn’t seem like an evil enough role for you,” more word vomit spilled out of her mouth.

Again, Oz only laughed. “I’m playing an underpaid call center manager who uses his position to steal customer credit card numbers that he sells to the Real IRA.” Now it was his turn to change the subject. “May I ask you a personal question, love?”

“Why not?” Sunny was the type of woman who liked to keep things close to the vest, but she was sincerely enjoying the time she spent with Oz. Plus, she had insulted him like twice so far, and he hadn’t gotten mad. She kind of owed it to him at this point.

“Your kids' dad, where is he? You said that you aren’t married and you don’t have a boyfriend.” Oz stopped speaking as the waitress arrived with the burgers they had ordered.

Sunny took a deep breath and waited for the waitress to depart before answering Oz honestly. “Brian was killed in a car crash when I was pregnant with Erica. I’m a widow.”

“Oh, shite. I’m a bloody arsehole.” Oz shook his head. “I shouldn’t have asked, love. I’m sorry.”

Sunny smiled. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Have I completely blown it with you, or can I take you to dinner tonight?”

Of all the things that Oz could have said, that had been the last thing that Sunny had expected to hear.


	5. Chapter 5

“It’s not a great idea,” Sunny tried to let him down easily.

“Why not?” Oz crossed his arms over his chest. “I like you, and underneath all that awkwardness, I think you like me too. I want to get to know you better.”

“Because, as you already know, I have two kids. Two kids and no babysitter.” It was a total lie. Carlie would watch the kids in a heartbeat if Sunny told her she had an honest to goodness date with a real live man…especially if that man was Oz Finley. Her heart was beating a million miles a minute with the knowledge that this perfect specimen of a man actually liked her, but she had to be realistic. They would never actually work. Maybe in an alternate reality, but certainly not in this one. Their lives were just way too different.

“Then why don’t you and the kids come over to my place and I’ll…well, I won’t cook you dinner because I’m fairly certain you’re concerned for your kids’ health – but I’ll order us some takeaway,” Oz suggested, completely destroying Sunny’s no babysitter excuse.

“Again, no.” Sunny kept telling herself that it was for the best as she shot him down a second time.

“Come on, why not?” Now Oz was starting to sound annoyed.

Sunny decided to go with the truth this time. Maybe that would help him get a clue. “Oz, I’m a mom. My kids always have and always will come first. I will not let my children get attached to a man only to have him disappear from their lives. Morgan already has issues left over from his father; he doesn’t need me adding any more,” she shook her head. “Not to mention that going to your place could very well end with my kids' pictures plastered all over gossip blogs. They don’t need that kind of exposure, and I sure as hell don’t want it for them.”

“Why said that if we dated, I would walk away?” Oz countered. “You’re just assuming I’m an arsehole, love, and that’s not fair. Who said anyone has to get hurt? That is not a forgone conclusion. Tell your kids that I’m a friend from work. It’s technically true, and you can tell them I’m a friend who got a different job and moved away if this doesn’t work. They won’t think anything of it. But, honestly, I think if you give me a chance, you’ll never have to have that conversation with them. How about this? Instead of you coming to my place, I’ll bring dinner to your place. We’ll be on your turf, and we can see if there’s anything between us without messing up Morgan and Erica. I know you feel the same pull that I do. Don’t lie to me and say you don’t.”

Damn him and his sweet considerateness.

“Fine,” Sunny gave in.

“Fine.” Oz smiled triumphantly and leaned back in his chair.

Before they left the restaurant, Oz made her program her number into his iPhone, and Sunny wasn’t sure if she had made a date or lost some sort of battle.


End file.
